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Week XLIX: Chillin' in Zillah

6/26/2011

This past week as been particularly laid back. Tim and I have been spending the week in Zillah at his parent's home. My days have gone something like this: sleep in, eat breakfast, go for a swim and a run (I'm training for a triathlon), take a shower and do all those other things necessary to get ready for the day, eat lunch, read a book, do some homework, help Hal frame the basement, or play WiiFit, eat dinner, watch a movie or play a game while eating ice cream, and finally, go to bed. I'm sorry for all you poor souls who have had to go to work this week.

Using the air nailer to help frame the Phillips' basement.

Tuesday I attended a Relief Society luau dinner with my mother-in-law, Joyce, and my sister-in-law, Hillary. I won a funky pair of sunglasses for "doing" the limbo. We were also able to visit some old friends. Wednesday, we were able to go to the Columbia River Temple. It is a very pretty temple. We happened to run into two couples from Tim's parent's ward who invited us to dinner after the session. That was a lot of fun. Thursday, Tim's cousin Jimi came to town and we made homemade pizza for the occasion. The pizza was a hit. Friday and Saturday I helped Hal do some framing in the basement. (See the picture for proof that I can be handy.) Joyce made a comment that Hal isn't going to have to help Tim build us a house one day, he's going to be helping me build us a house someday. :) I have to admit those tools are pretty fun to use.
I don't feel like there's anything too exciting to report from this week. However, Tim and I have gotten some adoption pass-along cards made up. We give them out if adoption ever comes up in conversation, we leave them with our checks at restaurants, and basically just use them to help spread the word. The cards do two things. First, make people aware that we want to adopt and secondly, give people several ways to contact us or our case worker. If any of you would like any of them to hand out, let us know and we can get some to you.

Also, I know that some of you have put a post about us on your own blogs to help spread the word. Thank you; it's working! If you haven't posted about our hopes to adopt on your blog and you are willing to, we would appreciate it. We just ask that you DO NOT include our last name, specific location, links to this website, or other personal information of the sort. In this day and age a little bit of anonymity is important, especially when adopting. (Please send people to our adoption website: www.timandkaitlyn.com) Unfortunately, adoption scams do happen and we can prevent being scammed by not sharing personal information.

Week XLVII & XLVIII: Atlantic to Pacific

6/19/2011

Niagara Falls from the American side.

    Tim and I have written a post for 46 consecutive weeks now. It wasn’t until last week that we broke our streak. I’m sure that many of you were anxiously awaiting a post last week and were sorely disappointed when in never came. :) This may be a condensed version of the past two weeks, partly because I can’t remember everything that happened in the past two weeks, and partly because we have written and lost the post three times already! That’s life.
    We spent June 2nd-14th in New York with my sister, Karen, and her family. It was a ton of fun seeing her, Brad, and their 3 girls, as well as site seeing around the state.
    A week ago last Tuesday, Tim and I took off from their house for a couple of days. We went to Niagara Falls where we spent the whole afternoon. We just enjoyed being in the sun and walking around by the falls. We did take a boat ride, Maid of the Mist, that took us pretty close to the falls. If it hadn’t have been for the disposable rain “coats” we were given, we both would have been drenched. It’s amazing how much mist came off those waterfalls. We had dinner at Tim’s first Hard Rock Café. Hard Rocks sure seemed a lot more exciting when I used to visit them with 10+ other teenagers and some die hard rock fans. It was still fun though.

Smith Family home built by Alvin in Palmyra.

We spent the next day in Palmyra, New York. This is where several important and sacred events occurred for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Tim and I started off the day by visiting the Palmyra temple. It was really nice to be in a temple again. You really start to miss the temple when you live a $600 flight away from the nearest one. Next we went to the Smith Family farm. We visited the log cabin where Moroni visited Joseph. We visited the frame house where Joseph hid the golden plates under the bricks around the fireplace. We also walked through the Sacred Grove where God and Jesus appeared to Joseph. It was a really neat experience to be able to visit these places and see what we have learned about all our lives. Later in the day we visited the publication site of the Book of Mormon, the Martin Harris home, and the Hill Cumorah where Moroni buried the golden plates and where Joseph, later, received them. Lastly, we visited the Whitmer Farm where the Book of Mormon was translated. If any of you are in the New York area, I recommend that you take some time to see the sites in Palmyra.

Joseph Smith memorial at his birthplace in Sharon.

    On Friday the Wildings took us to Vermont. We took a scenic route to see some covered bridges and to visit the Vermont Country Store. The store had all sorts of candies, cheeses, and crackers. It was so fun just looking around and seeing everything they had. We also hiked around at Quechee gorge and eventually made it to Sharon, Vermont, where Joseph Smith was born.
    Last Monday, the Wildings took us to Lake George. Tim took some family photos for the Wildings and then we enjoyed the rest of the evening walking around the shops, eating dinner, getting ice cream, and playing in the arcade. I never knew how much fun arcades were. It’s probably a good thing too, because it’s way to easy to spend money there.
     Tuesday Karen took us to the capital building in Albany before we had to head to the airport. The capital building was really cool. It’s a pretty old, historic building. We left about 3:00 pm and made it to Seattle late that night.

Tim with all the Jensen girls: Carmen, Aja, Liv, and Anna.

In Seattle, we spent a few days with my sister, Carmen, and her 3 girls. It was their last week of school, so it was fun to be involved in those festivities. Carmen introduced us to a lot of good food, as always. Tim and Carmen had fun swapping culinary tips in the kitchen while I taught the girls jump rope tricks outside. Then, the girls taught me some highland dances. It was really cute listening to them encouraging me every time I made a mistake: “It’s okay. You’ll get it. Keep practicing. Keep trying.” Carmen was also gracious enough to let us invite some friends over for dinner. It had been 2 years since we'd seen Sarah and Edgar. It was so good to catch up with them and see their 3 kids.
     Friday, Carmen drove us to Zillah. She and her girls stayed with us at Tim’s parent’s house that night and then headed to their dance competition on Saturday morning. Tim and I have been enjoying spending time with his parents and Hillary the last few days.
     We’ve really enjoyed the opportunity we’ve had to spend time with family the last few weeks and are really grateful for how accommodating everyone has been.
     We hope everyone has enjoyed Father’s Day today! I am very grateful for both my father and Tim’s father. They have had such a positive influence on both of our lives.

Week XLVI: On to New York!

6/6/2011

Kaitlyn in Anchorage.

Tim and I felt like we should do something special for memorial day, since it was a long weekend, (although, that didn't really make any difference to us) and the weather in Anchorage was beautiful. The Peterson's were kind enough to lend us their tandem bicycle. We spend a couple hours riding up and down the coastal trial in Anchorage. It was fun spending some time in the sun and listening to the kids exclamations that saw us riding by, "Look! There's two grown-ups on that big bike!"
Tuesday and Wednesday Tim and I went to a PE conference. The state of Alaska recently adopted their first set of PE standards. We were lucky enough to be 2 of the 35 teachers chosen throughout the state to get a all-expense paid trip to Anchorage to participate in the conference. I felt like that conference was pretty helpful. I don't think good PE teachers are given enough credit. I felt a little lost this last year teaching PE and not really knowing the purpose. I knew it should be more than an inside recess, but I wasn't sure exactly what it should be. This conference helped me realize the purpose of PE. Know I just feel like I'm behind on how to actually teach the skills and how to pick and choose which skills to teach. Then again, I can't expect to learn in 2 days, what others took 4 years studying.

Tim drinking the spring water in Congress Park.

    After our PE conference Tim and I hung out in the mall waiting until it was time to go to the airport. We watched a movie, did some window shopping, and had some dinner, before heading to the airport for our 1:45 am flight. It was amazing how busy the Anchorage airport is that early in the morning. We had a 5 hour flight to Phoenix, another 5 hour flight to Philadelphia, and a final 1.5 hour flight to Albany, New York. I must admit, when we arrived, we were a bit gross. We were still in our PE clothes from Wednesday morning, which we had exercised in for 2 hours. I was very happy to see a shower and clean clothes.
    We are now in Greenfield, New York, where we get to spend the next week and a half with my sister, Karen, and her family. Karen and Brad have been great hosts so far and their girls are so fun to play with. We have gone to the library, Congress Park, Lake Desolation, a birthday party, church (yes, this is a big deal for us!), and the Saratoga Battlefield.
    New York is a beautiful state, at least the part we have seen. We love how green it is and how many trees there are.

Week XLIX: Chillin' in Zillah

Week XLVII & XLVIII: Atlantic to Pacific

Week XLVI: On to New York!

Tim & Kaitlyn

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